


competition

by nayvee



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: (maybe), 2020 L'Manberg Election on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen, Jack Manifold Needs A Hug, L'Manberg War of Independence on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), L'Manberg | L'Manburg on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Post-Manberg-Pogtopia War on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), does this even count as character analysis??, i should probably put relevant stuff here huh, jack reflects on his time in the smp woohoo, word-vomit character analysis as promised, wow so true
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:01:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29788875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nayvee/pseuds/nayvee
Summary: competition (n.) - contest between organisms for recognition or social statusIt was terrifying and freeing at the same time, that his story was finally severed from Tommy’s. He had no one to compete with but himself.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Jack Manifold, Jack Manifold & Niki | Nihachu, Jack Manifold & TommyInnit, Jack Manifold & Wilbur Soot, No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 41





	competition

**Author's Note:**

> i will never write something without a one-word title that's just how i roll. unfortunately this one isn't a super unique vocabulary word but it fits ig.
> 
> warnings: none! (i think i say hell once)

A younger Jack, specifically one seven months younger, would have cried. Back when he still called himself Thunder, when a new nation was his to build alongside friends, when the greatest concern was how his uniform fit. Standing in that old uniform, with scars unimaginable to its previous wearer, felt childish now. The sleeves were shorter, as were the ankles. He’d grown, not to mention the new tightness around his shoulders from muscle he’d built through the wars. God, when he joined L’manberg he’d been so stupid. Barely an adult but still with the mind of a child, invited by his friend to help create a new nation in spite of the literal god that opposed them. But he did it anyway.

Now, he wondered, would he make the same choice? Knowing everything that would transpire, knowing that in a short few months he’d be clawing his way through the pits of hell in the name of revenge on that very friend. He doesn’t have an answer yet. 

He doesn’t cry. Instead he puts on that stupid uniform and walks around the stupid SMP and curses the sky, the ground, the glass that covers the crater where his home once was, everything. He remembers the early days of L’manberg and can almost see the ghosts of its founders‒Wilbur and Tommy‒dancing on the glass, blissfully unaware of the fact that it would soon shatter. Despite what he wants to believe, Jack knows that he was never seen as one of the nation’s founders. That honor-turned-curse fell to the brothers. That’s where his jealousy of Tommy started: a boy years younger than him got more recognition just because Wilbur was in charge. When Tommy and Wilbur were the only two exiled, it only solidified their position as the figureheads of L’manberg, so Jack left. 

He went and started his own nation, desperate to be recognized for something. What was the difference between him and Wilbur? Wilbur said “let’s make a nation” and half the world jumped up to follow him. Jack says “let’s make a nation” and no one moves an inch. Manifoldland, population 1. He told himself they’d join. In the absence of the free nation that L’manberg once was, they’d come and start over with him. But no, they all followed the brothers. Again. Even Niki, the other overlooked founder, stayed in Manberg despite the taxes and threats from Schlatt. He held out for a while, waiting for maybe Fundy or Eret, to no avail. 

So finally, the day before the war, he put himself back in the narrative. He showed up at the new place, quite literally a hole in the ground named Pogtopia and declared his allegiance. It didn’t take a genius to know that the rebels were the heroes in this story, fighting against a tyrant and a god. To his surprise, they had a god too. Technoblade. Granted, he wasn’t god of this world, but he posed a fair challenge to Dream. 

He fought with them as a background character. It was his own fault; he’d showed up too late, but being sidelined by the same people for the second time was enough. When L’manberg blew, Jack ignored the pang in his heart and went back to his lonely nation and stewed. In his time alone, he managed to convince himself that it was all Tommy’s fault, that if he had been in the boy’s place during L’manberg’s original administration everything would be different. 

But now, standing before the final resting place of a country that was never meant to be, he knew he was wrong. Niki was right about one thing in her psychotic rage: L’manberg was doomed from the start. Why he ever thought a nation built from a drug cartel and lead by two brothers with a hero complex would work out, he didn’t know. There was a lot he didn’t know these days. Hell, there were new members of the SMP he hadn’t even met. He’d been through hell and back out of pure spite, yet didn’t know where to go from here. 

So he burns. He burns his house down and walks into the flames embrace, confusing one world for another as the tongues of fire eat through his old uniform and sting his skin. The familiarity of it snaps him out of his reverie, and he respawns a new man with no attachments tying him to anywhere: no house, no nation, no friends, no goal, nothing. It was terrifying and freeing at the same time, that his story was finally severed from Tommy’s. He had no one to compete with but himself.

**Author's Note:**

> kudos are vv appreciated!! also if ur one of my twitter moots uh, hi? i write sometimes. if ur not one of my twitter moots, u can follow me @vihaachu and we can b friends :) *OH FUCK NOT THE SMILEY FACE*


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